VISIT TO SULTAN OF PONTIANA

along that shore, the batteries kept up as brisk a fire as
the wetness of the weather would admit. When I
could afford to keep the ship a little off the wind, I
ordered some guns to be fired at a battery that had just
opened abreast of us, which quieted them a little.
We then stopped firing till we could keep her away,
with the wind abaft the beam, when, for a few minutes,
we kept up a very lively fire on the last battery we had to
pass, which I believe must otherwise have done us
great damage. At half-past twelve, being out of reach
of their shot, the firing ceased."

The whole of this admirable piece of service was
performed so quickly, and at the same time with so
much coolness, that there occurred little or no opportun-
ity for any remarkable individual exertion. Every-
thing, as I have heard it described by Sir Samuel Hood
himself and by the officers, went on as if the ship had
been working out of Plymouth Sound at noonday.
One little incident, however, which caused much amuse-
ment in the ship, will help to show the degree of regard
in which Sir Samuel was held by those immediately
about him ; and to disprove the proverb of no man
being a hero to his valet de chambre.

Dennis M'Carty, an old and faithful servant of
Captain Hood's, who was quartered at one of the main-
deck guns in the cabin, stood firm enough till the bat-
teries opened on the Juno. No sooner had the firing
commenced, and the shot came whizzing over and
through all parts of the ship, than Dennis, to the great
amaze and scandal of his companions, dropped the side
tackle-fall, and fairly ran off from his gun. Nothing in
the world, however, could be further from poor Pat's
mind than fear—except fear for his master, behind
whom he soon stationed himself on the quarter-deck^;
and wherever Captain Hood moved, there Dennis
followed, like his shadow. The poor fellow appeared
totally unconscious of any personal danger to himself,

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